Key Tips For Resume Writing

By Colin Cherry

As someone who was involved in Human Resources for several years, I must have waded through thousands of resumes,(or Curriculum Vitae as the are called in Europe), and sad to say most of them ended up in the trash without hardly a glance just because their authors failed to follow a few basic rules in presentation. Cut the chances of your resume going the same way by following the few basic tips below.

Tip 1 - Put yourself in the reader's position. A busy manager of a Human Resources Department of a large corporation just does not have the time to go through each resume with a fine tooth comb. So he will just ignore those that are badly written.

Tip 2 - Think Positive! Before you start think about what your resume really is. It is an advert for you. It is your one shot to persuade a complete stranger that you deserve an interview. So it is very important that when you write your resume that you are in a positive frame of mind. Tell yourself " I can do that job" and " I can contribute to that company" and use the resume to persuade your reader of that.

Tip 3 - Don't be Verbose. The last thing a Human Resources Manager wants to see is a resume as thick as a novel. He will not will not have time to read it and it will just get binned. The ideal length is one page but two or even three pages is ok if necessary.

Tip 4 - Be Neat. Quite often I used to receive resumes that had coffee stains on them. These were trashed immediately as were the ones that were obviously prepared on scraps of paper that happened to be lying around. Do not sell yourself short. Get some nice grade office paper to print your resume and covering letter on and a matching envelope. It's not going to cost you that much, but it will keep your resume from ending up in the trash.

Tip 5 - Print Your Resume. The resume should be printed, not hand written. Keep the font size fairly large (12 point is standard) and easy to read. Only use bold lettering for your name. Remember to check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. While you don't have to have a degree in English to send in a proper resume, you will want to run that spell check program and read through the sentences a few times to be sure that you aren't missing words and saying something that you don't mean.

Tip 6 - Type of Resume. There are several styles of resume you can use depending upon the type of job you are applying for but a fairly safe bet is to use the chronological style. This lists your work experience, starting with your present job, any job-specific training, your educational background, and finally something about yourself which can include hobbies, activities and charity work.

Tip 7 - Covering Letter. A covering letter is a must. You use it to state what job you are applying for and why you think you would be suitable for it. There is some debate as to whether the letter should be hand written or printed. I would suggest that unless the job advertisement states that it should be hand written then you should print it. Keep the typeface the same as you used for your resume.

Colin Cherry writes articles on a broad range of subjects. For more tips and resources on resumes visit http://www.bestemploymenttips.com/tips/

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